


No Satisfaction (Only Slight Satisfaction)

by maridoll



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, also lots of music, bc music is so important to this work now, the culmination of my uni experiences plus spe stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-07 08:09:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14076624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maridoll/pseuds/maridoll
Summary: Here’s the deal: On each of your wrists you have a name. One of the names is that of your soulmate’s, the other that of your enemy’s. No one knows which is which.For Gold and Crystal, fate decided to play it simple: they each only had one name, the other wrist bare. While Crystal went to discover her one name was that of her enemy's, Gold naturally decides to assume the same after a chance encounter with a boy sharing the same name as the one on his skin.But as time goes on, he finds rethinking that assumption might be in his best interest.





	No Satisfaction (Only Slight Satisfaction)

**Author's Note:**

> yea i got some things to say so bear with me,
> 
> first, i started this back in high school. i've written a lot for it over the time, and now that i'm almost through my second sem at uni, yea i can safely say i've gone back to correct the inaccuracies, but there might be some that are still there. while they might be not as jarring, just.. get over them, i guess. 
> 
> second, a lot of this fic is based off of random prompts. the whole soulmate/enemy thing was a prompt, so you can see where this goes. i don't think anything will stand out apart from the story as 'oh, this is obviously like a separate thing' but if you do happen to catch something familiar, you might've seen the prompt it was inspired by. 
> 
> third, tons of this is based off my uni experience. oak, who will appear later on, is someone i added in halfway through my first sem of geology bc i drew so much inspiration from the professor. to be specific, i went back and added him in to the parts that had been written a long time ago. it was a very unexpected change, but i also think it was very rewarding to make. 
> 
> also a weird show up the tags is X. i decided to add him in a few weeks ago, and it was at that point in the story that i realized this would no longer work as a one-shot like it had been planned to. hence, why i'm posting this now even though im suuuper sketch to, and why its multichap in general. x has a fun role, though he doesn't appear until late in the story. 
> 
> last, i guess? this isn't done. there's sorta an end goal but it's not in sight. i can promise this definitely won't be like a 40+ chapter fic, but it also isn't gonna be 10k and be done. also, it's not gonna be done for a while. updates will be irregular bc uni isn't fun to a proper writing schedule. also bc as i gain more experience, things can change or get added, like professor oak. the reason i'm posting this first part is bc i've never really changed it, so it's safe to say i won't. it will seem like its moving fast in some parts, i assure you it's not. denial is in the long haul, though it's not really slow burn.
> 
> not last, bc i forgot: music. as mentioned in the tags, music plays a big role in the fic. it's the moodsetter throughout. sometimes there will be specific mentions of songs that are entirely cringe-y, and this is me acknowledging that they are, yes, and they're supposed to be. i think there's one in this first bit, so fair warning. you'll see soon, music is . . big. it'd be one of the themes of the story, if you think about that stuff. and there are specific reasons as to why sometimes its warm, and others cheesy, and others so awfully second-hand embarrassing you think about quitting reading. 
> 
> that being said, i've had a lot of fun working on this? i hope it's fun to read. this is my first pmshi fic since early 2016, and my first major one, ever.

 

There was a particular event of this world in which a certain order of people don’t exactly get the best results from. 

Of course, some of those that others would view as being cheated by life actually found themselves really fortunate.

Here’s the deal: On each of your wrists you have a name. The names are significantly faded, obscured from view at birth really, so you can’t tell what’s written without being relatively close. One of the names is that of your soulmate’s, the other that of your enemy’s. No one knows which is which. 

Crystal was one of the people who had an easier time with that question. She only had one name, the other wrist unmarred. For a while it was a bit of a wonder as to what the name could either signify, but that all changed in their first year of high school. There, she met an academic scholar -such as herself- named Eusine, the same name on her wrist. 

Eusine was a third year and, to put it short, absolutely infuriating. The two were always competing to see who could get the best marks despite the difference of their classes, and it became a battle most others couldn’t hope to reach. Second term, Crystal declared she was ace, so that was a done deal. She also got the highest scores of the school at the end of term, so Eusine had no choice but to sulk as he went off and graduated, declaring his desire to go off and pursue some magical beast he’d read about in a book previously. 

And that was that. Crystal’s one name was that of her enemy’s, and it was back in high school, and they had never seen the guy since, so it was a done deal. Her magical name quest given to her half-heartedly by life was complete, nothing left to it. Not that she minded, running into Eusine again wasn’t something on her daily lists of things to do.

Gold envied Crystal for that reason. But she was also his best friend, both bonding over their shared one-name-only trifle, so he was never envious for long, and it was never anything but a dull, weak couple of thoughts. 

That morning Gold’s mind decided to envy Crystal’s ease at being done with the whole name-destiny-thing for the sole reason that he was moving into an apartment that day and was incredibly nervous for some stupid reason because it was a big place with lots of people around and he still hadn’t found his soulmate/slash/enemy. It diminished pretty quickly, though, like always.

Currently, Crystal was helping move stuff into the aforementioned apartment because she lived in a dorm on campus so her stuff got moved in a week prior and Gold may have mentioned more than once how appreciative he would be if she were to help. She saw through it, though -it was rare that Gold actually remember to do anything nice in return. So she made him promise to buy her food that evening as payment, and he was forced to begrudgingly agree.

The apartment was on the fourth floor. The elevator of the apartment building was currently jammed with other residents that had decided to move in that day. Stupidly -according to Crystal- Gold decided to take the stairs. This was their second trek up. Crystal was holding a suspiciously heavy-but-small box and mentally cursing her best friend with every step she took. Finally, as they reached the third floor foyer, she had enough of guessing what the ‘OM’ label signified. “Gold, what the hell is in this box?”

He was already ascending the next staircase, but did flip back his head to look as he replied and she slowly followed. “The  . . Oh, my music. Bunch of tapes, CDs, stuff.”

“T-” She paused, thought, then quickly continued. “Tapes? Do you even have a player?”

“Yeah, somewhere.” He shrugged. “It’s mostly older stuff. Sinatra, Jovi, Frey, stuff like that. Although I did invest in-”

She could see it, a few paces behind him. He had reached the top, was spinning around the corner, and she’d seen enough of his accident-prone self to know, the shadow on the wall ahead only confirming.

“-Some, like, Gaga and-” He broke off with a very high-pitched squeal as he slammed into the person approaching, and Crystal quickly got up the final few steps to catch him before he could fall down the stairs. This mostly involved shoving the heavy box against his mid-back, but it did keep him upright. More than she could say for the other, who was barely picking themselves up into a sitting position.

“What-Oh shit-” Gold sputtered, catching sight. He quickly set the items he was carrying onto Crystal’s box -making her grunt and lean against the railing to keep from falling over from the weight- and reached down to offer a hand to the other. “Sorry about that, miss-”

“ _God_  that hurt,” a clearly-not-feminine voice said. The head lifted to reveal a pair of silvery eyes and -yep, it was a guy, way to go Gold, real nice move. They flicked to his outstretched hand for only a moment before ignoring it in favor of the wall beside him. Once he was back on his feet, those silver orbs narrowed and Gold retrieved his hand. 

“Uh. Sorry,” he said, eyes wide.

The other reeled back his lip. “Yeah right. Watch where you’re going next time, asshole.” He pushed away from the wall and walked off in the direction he’d originally been headed, to a door at the end of the hall, which Gold found strange but he would ignore in favor of other things.

“I  _said_  I was sor-” He broke off his half-shout as Crystal kneed him from behind, wincing in pain.

“Quit it and grab these from me before I collapse,” she grunted. Gold swiftly complied, adding an apology for good measure. She only huffed and shoved him out of the way, finally standing on the floor.

“Seriously though, what a hick.” He grumbled more as they moved toward his room. Although he was intrigued by the red hair. Not in a curious way, Crystal had  _dark blue_  hair for crying out loud, but it just seemed so vibrant.

His thoughts were cut short by Crystal kicking open the door they’d left cracked with a spare uni pamphlet they’d had on hand, figuring it’d be so small no one would notice the door was open. He walked in after her, watched her drop the box onto the counter with only minor flinching, and proceeded to freeze when she spun around to look pointedly at him.

“ . . What? What did I do?”

She shrugged. “Nothing. Just, watch where you’re going. And play some of this stuff. Music makes this less challenging.”

-

It was late in the evening when Gold found himself venturing out of his apartment, figuring he’d grab something from the vending machine the next floor down for dinner that night -because stupid Crystal and her stupid expensive tastes. He was just swinging the door shut, murmuring the last melodies of a song, when he saw something unbelievable.

“ . . . heart is a ghost town . .Uh-”

The person in front of him froze, a couple feet away. Silver eyes, red hair, the one from earlier. His hand was outstretched to a door beside Gold’s that led into the compartment beside Gold’s which meant he lived by-

The other stuck the key in and twisted the handle, looking firmly at the cream-colored door in front of him. Gold let his lips loosen before he could stop himself.

“Are you serious.”

The other finally pushed the door open, not bothering to answer and instead walking in. Gold jumped forward and caught his wrist, which was wrenched free pretty quickly as he spun around, pale eyes gleaming. “What,” he spat.

Gold bit down on his lip for a good moment to avoid saying anything unnecessary. “Your name,” he ground out. “I never caught it.”

The two stared each other down for a good five seconds before the other relented. “Silver,” he huffed. As Gold opened his mouth to speak again, Silver beat him to it. “Don’t care. Bye.”

The door was promptly shut in Gold’s face.

He wrenched out his phone and ran to the elevator.

-

“ _Repeat that again?_ ”

“His name was, get in there you stupid bill, was Silver.”

“ _And that’s important because . . ?”_

“It’s the name on my wrist, Crys,  _God_.”

“ _Sorry, sorry! It’s been a bit since I’ve seen it._ ”

“Finally! Now . . mm . . let's do chips . . So we’re the same.”

“ _Excuse me?_ ”

“The same, like, we both have the names of our enemies.” He popped open the bag, immediately crunching on a couple chips.

“ _You think he’s your enemy?_ ”

“Um, yeah. You were there. Plus he slammed the door in m’ face minute ago.”

“ _So that makes him your destined enemy_.”

“Pretty much. You know any other Silvers? Plus his place is right beside mine. And he’s off-putting. And scowls a lot.”

On the other end, Crystal sighed and put her face into one hand. “ _Kay look. So it’s probably not going to work to avoid him. Just don’t stir up much trouble. Grades come first, got it?_ ”

Although he wasn’t up to par with his super-geeky BFF, Gold had had the effort to maintain a good GPA, one of the reasons he was starting at the same school as her tomorrow. Since he was on scholarship, he understood what she meant. “Got it,” he muttered.

“Good. Now it’s, like, nine. So goodnight.”

-

The next time Gold saw Silver, they were both walking out of their rooms. Silver immediately looked away, walking over to the stairs. Gold glared for a moment before turning to the elevator.

This continued for the next few days, every morning, except for a notable trend. Silver grew more weary, dark spots appearing below his eyes, limbs moving just a bit slower. Gold didn’t get it until returning to his place the next day. Silver was coming out of the building, backpack on, books stacked in his arms, a phone between his head and shoulder. So that was it. He was a study freak, he was probably not sleeping very much. He probably . . uh . . .

“ _What do you want?_ ”

“Gee thanks, good to hear your voice too.”

“ _It’s seven, Gold, and I have things to do._ ”

“Fine fine. Tell me how you take notes.”

“ _Because . .?_ ”

“Reasons.”

A sigh echoed through the speaker. “ _I record the lecture and make a color code chart of all the topics mentioned. Then I make the notes in my spare time._ ”

Yep. That’s probably what he did. Mystery solved. Nothing big.

Except, it did turn out to be sorta big, when the water system clicked on for the first time late at night.

Gold didn’t realize the walls were that thin. Lo and behold, he could hear the pipes moving next door. He let his eyes slide open, move to the clock beside his bed. Oh. Not night anymore, it was nearing past two.

He’d just tell him off in the morning, well, later into the morning.

Except he didn’t. Gold was out the door late and Silver wasn’t there. He didn’t really feel like knocking, either, so he left. And then he forgot. Until, at least, the next night, when it happened again. 

Gold considered moving in with Crys. Then he remembered her saying not to make a big deal out of this, to just deal with it, it was just life. 

So at three-forty in the morning, ten minutes after the water had been shut off, Gold climbed out of bed and knocked on the redhead’s door.

It took a minute, but the door opened, Silver peeking out of it. When he caught sight, his eyes narrowed. “What do  _you_  want?”

“I-” Gold stopped, considered his words, then lowered his voice to a half-shout. “I want you to stop taking showers at three a.m., you nerd! Get your shit together.”

“N-Ner . . ?” Silver paused, thinking through the statement. Finally, he looked back up at Gold. “Okay. Sorry. I’ll . . do that.”

He hadn’t been expecting that. Still left with a bit of spitfire, Gold just fired away. “Good!”

Mistake. Those silver orbs turned cold, turned to look him straight. “I get it, you can stop now,” he spat. Then he turned, shutting the door a little hard but not too much to cause a complaint.

He didn’t go too far. They were enemies after all, right? That was okay. But . . he did still feel kinda bad, as he went back and found he couldn’t fall back asleep.

He got up early and made himself some coffee, machine courtesy of a friend of his. After drinking it he got ready, then made a second cup before heading out the door.

As if on cue, the second his was shut and locked, Silver’s opened and the redhead stepped out. The first thing Gold noticed was that his hair was in a loose bun. He hadn’t known it was long enough for it, but hey, there it was. The second thing was that his eyes were immediately on him.

Or, uh, maybe not him. Gold glanced down at his drink. Then looked back up to Silver’s stricken face. Then he remembered last night, and slowly held the cup out. “Here. You look like you could use it.”

Silver just deadpanned at him. “Thanks, because someone insulting me is the first thing I needed this morning.”

He grimaced. Maybe that was some of the intention, but he was also trying to be nice, for once! Okay, it was most of the attention. But he really didn’t need a second cup, the sugar high would kill him later. “Just take it.”

“Is it poisoned?”

“Only if you don’t like a little cream.”

The other’s shoulders visibly relaxed. Another moment of hesitation, then Silver was slightly gripping the cup. Gold withdrew his hand. 

“Thanks.”

“Sure thing, mister beast.”

“Does everything that comes out of your mouth have to be infuriating?” Silver snapped.

“I could say the same to you!”

“Whatever. This probably tastes like shit, anyways.”

They didn’t interact for a bit after that.

 

**Author's Note:**

> the top got rly long so ill throw this down here. the title?? might not be permanent. i usually don't bother with titles and halfheartedly fling an excuse one when posting to ao3, but the spe fandom generally isn't as accepting of things kinds of things so i uh.. tried, for now. it's also a nod to the music aspect, and if you know the song its from yea ill love you forever. 
> 
> [ its supposed to be like this, bc i jus realized it might be misinterpreted: no satisfaction > maybe some satisfaction > only slight satisfaction / or, no satisfaction (on second thought, ) ]


End file.
